OAKLAND — Well, we may have learned something Monday night: One half of real, honest-to-goodness, regular-season NFL football is an acceptable substitute for four glorified scrimmages in the preseason.

Much was made of the fact Rams coach Sean McVay kept most of his regulars out of the team’s four exhibition games, the reasoning being that avoiding the risk of injury was more important than any concern about getting re-accustomed to the speed of the game.

Los Angeles’ first-team offense, including quarterback Jared Goff, running back Todd Gurley and wideouts Brandin Cooks, Robert Woods and Cooper Kupp, needed maybe a half to round into form in the season opener against the Raiders. The Rams dominated the second half, scoring 23 consecutive points, outgaining Oakland 267-141 and controlling the ball two-thirds of the half in their 33-13 victory.

Who needs August football, right?

“I don’t know if it was necessarily rust (in the first half) or if we’ve just got to execute a little better,” McVay said.

Well, consider: In the first half, Oakland had the ball for 21-1/2 of the 30 minutes. Of the Rams’ four possessions in the first half (not counting Goff taking a knee at the end of the half), one went for a touchdown, a shovel pass to Todd Gurley. Greg Zuerlein, kicking off the infield dirt, pushed a 46-yard field attempt wide right and came back to make a 20-yarder, also off the dirt.

The other possession? Two words: Johnny Hekker. Slight digression, but Hekker punted twice, a 62-yarder that backed the Raiders up to their own 15 (and started a field-position change that led to Gurley’s touchdown), and a 55-yarder in the third quarter that forced the Raiders to start at their own 8 (and led to an Oakland three-and-out and ultimately another Rams touchdown).

Two years ago, on a Rams team with an abysmal offense, we suggested Hekker should be the team’s offensive MVP. Can’t say that now, but his importance to the effort can’t be overstated.

He might not need August football, either.

As offensive tackle Andrew Whitworth pointed out, a key aspect of the game in which the preseason can’t help you much is red-zone efficiency. The Rams aren’t the finished product in that department; they were inside the Raiders’ 20 five times and settled for field goals on three.

“Down in the red zone in the NFL is where these games are won or lost,” he said. “Getting down in the red zone and scoring is hard in this league, and the teams that do it well win and go to the playoffs every year.

“To get good at it, you have to get down there and have that opportunity (in the regular season). In the preseason, it’s vanilla, it’s no coverages, it’s nothing. But in real games, you’re going to get everything (thrown at you). Everybody’s going to have a red-zone plan for you, and until you get down there with the fast timing and how accurate everything has to be, and how on-the-money everything has to be, until you really do it in a real game I don’t know that there’s a chance to have experience with it.”

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Gurley carried the ball four times in the first half and 16 in the second, including six carries on the first series of the half.

“It’s trying to get in that rhythm, getting consecutive running plays … just trying to get the feel of the game, to see what those guys were going to do,” he said. “They’ve got a new defensive coordinator (Paul Guenther), and obviously he’s got a lot of film from (Cincinnati), but for what we know, he could have come out here and done everything different.”

Along the way, while getting off to a good start, the Rams ran some plays that will give future opponents something to think about. In one sequence, Goff threw a screen pass to Gurley for 3 yards, then came right back with the same play for 17.

Twice in the first half, the Rams got Cooks open deep and drew pass interference penalties, a 37-yard call against Rashaan Melvin and a 50-yard call on Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie.

“He can stretch the field,” Goff said. “You can see his speed. We threw enough deep balls tonight to show it off. Unfortunately, we didn’t hit on any of them, but we had those two pass interferences that were huge in moving the ball downfield.”

Those will give opposing defensive coordinators food for thought, as will the two deep balls on which Goff and Robert Woods just missed on in the span of three plays in the fourth quarter.

“We’re going to be an aggressive offense,” McVay said. “And if those opportunities present themselves, those are shots we’re going to try to take.”

If there’s an unspoken message it might be this: Just wait til they’re in midseason form.

Jim Alexander is an Inland Empire native who started with his hometown newspaper, The Press-Enterprise, longer ago than he cares to admit. He's been a sports columnist off and on since 1992, and a full-time columnist since 2010. Yes, he's opinionated, but no, that's not the only club in his bag. He's covered every major league and major sports beat in Southern California over the years, so not much surprises him any more. (And he and Justin Turner have this in common: Both attended Cal State Fullerton. Jim has no plans to replicate Turner's beard.)